This past weekend was packed full of adventures. One of the many places that were explored was the new Gainesville campus for the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It is not a big as the one in Piedmont Park but it is less than half the price, a little closer for me, less traffic and free parking. All wins in my book. My friend Lori and I visited it on Sunday and there was hardly a soul in the place. I was still feeling a little woozy from the wine run the night before but wasn't going to let that stop me from our planned adventures.

Of course butterflies were everywhere. So were the bees, they had a honey bee hive and demo going on. The world needs more honey bees.

I was fascinated with the dew drops that I found attached to spider webs built inside plants here and there. They sparkled all over the garden. It was like someone bedazzled the place.

We decided to explore the hiking trails. Which was probably not the smartest idea considering what shape I was in but I had water and it was shaded and short so why not? I am so glad we went even though I think this is where I contracted chiggers, or some other little bastards similar to them. Seriously Ya'll, I haven't slept in days! So much itch on my feet. Poor Lori too! Luckily little man came out unscathed.

We hit the mother load of mushrooms!

It was like we found the hidden Smurf village (and how we wished we had some Smurfs for pictures)

There were HUGE mushrooms (tip of my toe for scale)

and tiny mushrooms that at first glance we thought were little acorns.

There were so many perfect story book mushrooms.

The main reason we even came here were to see the stick sculptures I read about.

Artist Patrick Dougherty creates these massive structures from scratch. You can see more of his work here

We worked up an appetite but sadly Gainesville is a ghost town on Sunday. We settled for Sherry's Bait and BBQ for lunch. A little shack near the lake. Food wasn't bad. It was and eclectic mix. Yes they sold bait and BBQ and no I had neither one!